Vitamin E benefits our body in many ways. It is one of the essential nutrients that the human body needs to acquire through its diet.

Essential nutrients, which also include familiar vitamins like vitamin C, vitamin A, and the B complex, are nutrients that play critical functions in our body, allowing us to function at maximum capacity.​

Why Do We Need Vitamin E?​

Vitamin E plays a number of important parts in the role of our health. It affects the function of our cardiovascular system, the health of our skin, and even helps keep us operating at peak mental capacity.

These generalizations don’t do any justice to the full spectrum of vitamin E’s health benefits, which we’ll discuss in a bit.

Vitamin E is actually the broad name given to a class of compounds, broken up into two categories.

"Tocotrienols and Tocopherols which come in four states - alpha, beta, delta, and gamma​.

Each of these individual chemical functions a little bit differently, though they’re all fairly similar in the fact that they fight oxidative damage. They just do it in different places, in slightly different ways.

All of these nutrients compliment each other and work much better than the sum of their parts if they’re all present in the body at the same time.

Vitamin E is fairly unique in that a complete form of vitamin E actually consists of a bunch of different compounds.

Some other vitamins are like this - Vitamin A, for example, is actually a combination of phytonutrients known as carotenoids.​

What is Vitamin E deficiency?​

Essential nutrients cause some pretty unpleasant side effects when they aren’t consumed in the recommended amounts. This is known as vitamin or mineral deficiency.​

Vitamin E deficiency is rare but if it is there, in particular, it is quite unpleasant. Three of the most severe symptoms of vitamin E deficiency are:​

Blindness, caused by macular degeneration. Vitamin E is very helpful for the eyes, but a lack of it can be terrible.

Weakened nerve impulses, leading to slower communication between mind and body, as well as decreased coordination and loss of mobility.

Muscle weakness, which can lead to general fatigue and loss of mobility and productivity.(1)

12 Benefits of Vitamin E for Good Health

1. Vitamin E Promotes Immunity in Our Body​

Vitamin E is a great vitamin because it bolsters the strength of our immune system.

Vitamin E is an anti-inflammatory antioxidant, which helps the immune system by taking some of the stress off of it.(1)(2)

The immune system's typical response to a pathogen (a perceived threat, like a virus or a bacteria) is to create an inflammatory response. This inflammatory response is what helps to destroy or at least hinder the growth and movement of these pathogens.

Vitamin E's ability to fight oxidation and inflammation reduces the stress that is placed on your immune system.

2. Vitamin E Nourishes And Promotes Skin Health

​The health of the skin is very important –

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It helps maintain a young appearance, and maintaining good skin healthprevents the onset of skin diseases like cancer and dermatitis, and also prevents the onset of blemishes that come with age.(3)

Vitamin E benefits our skin by promoting the production of collagen. Collagen is the main hormone that's responsible for keeping your skin in check – it makes it strong, elastic, and shiny and young-looking.

Having enough collagen is important because it helps eliminate the onset of skin degeneration.

3. Vitamin E Is Helpful In Cancer

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant.

Antioxidants are good for the body because they help eliminate the onset of oxidation.

Oxidation is a natural response to the presence of oxygen in the body, but too much oxidation leads to dangerous conditions and can create environments for diseases to grow – particularly cancer.(4)

Antioxidants, and specifically vitamin E are good for fighting cancer because they help to eliminate free radicals.

Free radicals are atoms that are missing electrons and they will steal an electron from a neighboring atom.

This creates a chain reaction of atoms destroying each other that can create a perfect environment for cancer.

4. Vitamin E Is Helpful In Knee Osteoarthritis

People suffering from osteoarthritis might want to consider supplementing with vitamin E.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition in the joints of the body, and vitamin E is a nutrient that's particularly effective at improving the health of bones and joints.

Vitamin E will better protect you from developing osteoarthritis, but it can also help ease the painful symptoms of the condition if you've already developed it.​(5)

5. Vitamin E is helpful in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is an unpleasant degenerative mental condition marked by the loss of memory and general confusion.

Vitamin E is a good fighter of Alzheimer’s.

Not only does its antioxidant power help prevent oxidative damage from destroying your thinking power, it also helps stimulate and regulate the production of acetylcholine.(6)(7)

Acetylcholine is one of the prime neurotransmitters responsible for thinking and transmitting thoughts throughout the brain.(8)

A depletion of acetylcholine can lead to brain fog and confusion; a long-term lack of this compound can allow Alzheimer's to set in much quicker.​

6. Vitamin E Promotes Eye Health

Vitamin A is typically the nutrient associated with improved eyesight, but there are other and Vitamin E is one of these eye healthy nutrients that help prevent the degeneration of your eyesight.(9)

In various clinical studies done on significant study groups, individuals who supplement their diet with additional vitamin E have been shown to have a much lower incidence of macular degeneration, and other study groups have proved that vitamin E slows the development of cataracts.(10)

7. Vitamin E is anti-inflammatory

Inflammation is normally a good thing – it's the body's immune response to pathogens and other dangerous things that can hurt your body.

Inflammation can be a problem when it happens when it's not needed, which can cause painful conditions, swelling, and cause your immune system to lose its ability to protect you when it's really necessary.

This is where anti inflammatory compounds like vitamin E come into play.

Unneeded inflammation responses are fairly common, which is why anti-inflammatory foods are also so common.

They help offset the potential damage that could be done by unwanted inflammation.